Worship Leader Types

Having played with quite a few worship leaders over the years, I’ve come to realise there are different types. Some I would prefer more than others but overall, I submit to all of them. That’s pretty important you know. We’re all there to make them happy. But hopefully their happiness doesn’t get in the way of making good music. At least I hope they realise.

One type is the song modifier. Some like to change the style of songs, arrangement, tempo etc. I’ve nothing against that but hopefully when they change it, it’ll sound just as good as the original. You see, artists spend lots of time arranging a song. It’s gone through several hours of editing and here comes some guy thinking he can make it sound better in 2 hours and he’s never made a record. Go figure.

The other type is the ‘my way or the highway’. This type believes every musician must follow his instructions. He doesn’t work with the band and expects the band to notice everything he wants to do. It’s fine if he’s leading alone, but if he’s with a band, he better understand the communication is two way.

The next type is one who doesn’t follow arrangements. Things can be quite difficult like this. The band practices one way and in the middle of worship, he does something else. Even the most capable musicians in the world, secular or church, follow the arrangements strictly. Some might say it restricts the Holy Spirit. I think we restrict the Holy Spirit more when we make a mess of things. As I said, it’s a band, not just the worship leader. He must know it’s a team effort, not just freely doing anything he likes. Discipline is key here.

The next type is the musical conductor. This guy would use all sorts of hand signals and signal in all directions that he beats the traffic policemen on duty when the traffic lights are faulty. Hand signals are not advisable as it's distracting. Some worship leaders have told me the band won't know what to play next if they don't use hand signs. This is a flawed concept. The idea is to simply arrange the song so that no hand signs need to be used. It's that simple! In the event the worship leader is dying to sing just that extra chorus for e.g., he can give some verbal signs at the last line just before the chorus. But this is usually the exception rather than the norm.

All in all, the worship leader must know he is not above the band. He has to work with the band. It's a team effort and if he thinks he's the ONE, then he should only lead worship alone. But in a band, all the musicians, singers and him are one. Worship leading is also a craft and thankfully today, we have plenty of resources online to help us get there as long as we're humble enough to learn.